Demarcus Cousins mourning his dog

During the middle of the Kings’ miserable second-half performance Wednesday against the visiting San Antonio Spurs, I noticed what appeared to be an autograph or some other personal writing on the sides of DeMarcus Cousins’ white sneakers. When I saw the shoes afterward in the locker room, the writing clearly read, “R.I.P. Roscoe.”

When I asked DeMarcus about it, the Kings center immediately became animated, telling me that his 18-week-old bulldog died last week after suffering an allergic reaction to a bee sting. “He just collapsed in his crate while I was on our last road trip,” said Cousins, who lives with his boyhood friend Andrew Rogers. “We had an autopsy done and everything because we wanted to know what happened. The (veterinarian) said it was from a bee sting.”